Knowledge Article Templates

@Kasper Sorensen
Dear @zendesk
It makes me really sad and disappointed that you guys don't really listen to the customer:

• KCS module and features were removed - we are unable to transfer ticket notes when creating a new article! What happened here? Why do we have to go back to the old copy and paste? Why is Zendesk removing the features instead of enhancing them?
• So we have article templates but we are unable to use them when creating a new article? Why? They are present on the knowledge capture app why can't we use them when creating a new article from scratch? High priorities? What about listening to the customer folks and what we really need and what makes sense?

Sorry for the venting Zendesk but some of your actions and explanations do not make any sense from a KM and CM point of view.

Hi @antonio11 - I'm sorry to hear your frustration. And your message confuses me a bit, I have to admit. What KCS feature has been removed in your mind? Because in my mind there hasn't been anything removed. We're talking in this thread about adding additional features, which just hasn't been prioritized yet.

Rest assured that whatever priorities may take precedence are always informed by listening to customers. It's never an easy choice to prioritize between several appealing directions and in this case the teams are simply fully occupied by working on content authoring capabilities that we think will have an even bigger impact. I was only trying to give you an update to let you know that we haven't forgotten about this request, but on the other hand also haven't found capacity in our plans to address it yet.

@kasper11
Thank you for the reply.
Kasper, I participated in the beta feature and those requirements when I worked for another company, and the KCS module that allowed the transfer of ticket notes to whatever Knowledge article template was chosen was a reality and did exist. Zendesk completely pulled the plug on that module and came up with something else that kind of works but really does not. You are allowed to create an article from a ticket but no ticket notes are transferred - it adds quite a bit of time to the support agent when creating content from their notes.
What about now that we have article templates but we are unable to use them when creating a new article? Why? They are present on the knowledge capture app why can't we use them when creating a new article from scratch?
I think that these are fair questions...

Hi @antonio11 - I don't think that what you're describing was ever possible through any app developed by Zendesk. But I wonder if maybe it is offered via a third party  app in the app marketplace.

@kasper11

Kasper,
You might want to check your facts, I even went to ZD headquarters a few times in San Francisco. The feature was available and I have used it before and it was removed.
Maybe you have been hired after 2015. The feature was available in 2015 because it was a requirement to renew the contract with you guys with a company I was working for. 
The feature was removed for sure. 

I wanted to chime in as another customer requesting the ability to use templates to create articles from inside Guide. This was a feature of the previous knowledge base I used. This helps us create more consistent documentation for our customers and helps our analysts create better documentation from the start.

For example, in Guide if I go to Add > Article I want to be able to fill in the usual info (Managed by, Visible to, Publish in Section, Author, Owner, Labels, etc) and then select a template to start from. Instead of seeing a blank screen to start from I'd like them to select from a small list of available templates and start from something like this:

Hi Zendesk team, 

Can we please get an answer as to whether you're ever planning to add this feature from the Guide portal? Surely, there are enough responses below this post to show that this would be hugely beneficial to your users. 

It seems that you already have the KCTemplate tag so having another drop down in the Guide section that could leverage articles tagged with this. If you're not planning to add this feature, could you tell us why you think that this isn't necessary/can't be done?

Thanks, 

Last time I checked on a feature request it took ZD over 11 years to think about it, then they said it would be available soon and then it was not.
I wish ZD Product managers could better listen to the customer’s needs.

I want to go ahead and chime in on this one - I work with clients and manually create templates that require copy-pasting. The KCTemplate tag is great if support agents are also responsible for content, but that's just not how most companies function. Most of us responsible for content rarely touch the Support product as we're getting things out. It is pretty sad how far behind Zendesk is from competitors on the Knowledge product, especially given how urgently everyone has been moving toward self-serve solutions the last few years.

For the folks on this thread, I found a product board on the Guide product recently - I forgot how I found it, but it was super helpful to see. I'm not sure if submitting feedback here would be helpful, but it's worth a shot? https://portal.productboard.com/89n7v1athaiis13juxkqdaru/tabs/60-under-consideration

(Zendesk, if you have this for other products, can you please let us know!)

Also - if this is a real problem for your teams, you could consider using a 3rd party CMS (if you aren't already) and an API integration to get the content into Zendesk. It's something to consider if you compare cost for a 3rd-party CMS vs Enterprise for access to content block and authoring tools, but know that getting an article API going can be a little dicey. I've seen it done with ok success - to be clear, I have very minimal coding experience myself, but I do feel it's possible if you have access to a developer who knows their stuff and has the time/patience to get it right! It may be worth sending some info over to your dev teams for further exploration if you have the resources/are already using another CMS.

@Maring
Why do you need to have workarounds and spend countless amounts of money in APIs, integration when Zendesk just needs to to fix what customers need?
They said their priority was content blocks, let’s move on past that because content creation and seamless integration and ease of use should be the word of order.
ZD needs to listen to their customers:
- Why can’t we create articles using the existing templates?
- Why do we need to copy and paste?
The feature already exists in the knowledge capture app.
I do like the product, I like ZD don’t get me wrong and I use it everyday. But ZD makes a terrible job listening to the customers needs vs wants that someone demands in order to renew the contract with Zendesk.

We really need templates in guide...

Hi there! Just checking in if this was something that could be addressed. thank you!

Maybe by 2033. Zendesk does not listen to their customers, sorry but it’s the truth.

As a company just starting to use Zendesk - we have 100's of KB's we want to add without a ticket.  Very frustrating that we are unable to make use of templates in Guide.  It looks like this feedback request was started in 5 years ago - Is this on the roadmap? 

@carmen19 such an obvious feature that actually used to be available was removed.
Zendesk does not listen to the customers, which is very disappointing because that feature, in particular, enables the business. I guess we need to keep copying and pasting enabling carpal tunnel...

Hi All, 

Thank you for sharing your feedback and your frustration. I am reading it all and can I'm taking it under consideration when I'm prioritizing work for my teams. As much as I'd like to fulfill every customer request, I must make tough choices when deciding the order of features we are committing to. 

For the last couple of years, our main focus in knowledge management is:

• providing tools for better content creation like a better editor, easier management of images and attachments, and advanced HTML components 
• content reusability: content blocks and article multiplacement (which is particularly long-lived request)

As well as keeping our systems compliant, secure, and reliable. We still have a lot of work in these areas before we can consider the commitments to our customers fulfilled. Therefore as much as I'd like to provide you with a better update I can't say now when we'll work on Article Templates. 

@maring yes! The product board roadmap was published for the purpose of gathering feedback. I'm working on publishing its replacement now and I hope to share it with the rest of my product organization. 

@katarzyna13
Not trying to be negative here but Zendesk comments yours included, bring a hand full of nothing.
You just made a nice comment that solves no problems that Zendesk users have.
Zendesk used to have the ability to transfer content to the knowledge templates and removed it.
Why when a user starts an article he can not pick an existing template? Does that make any sense to you Katarzyna? From a UI and UX perspective, does that make any sense? I don't think so.
Grab a group of Zendesk users and have a monthly discussion about what we really need and not what it might be COOL  to have. That way Zendesk might be able to retain more customers...

This feature is soooo important and so easy to implement. Please, Zendesk

Hi,

This initial request has been done almost 6 years ago. Since you already have the article template possibility in the Knowledge Capture app, implementing this in Guide should be a small task for a developer to do.

Having the template available in guide would help our content creators save time, by not having to copy paste article structures from other articles. It would also help us in ensuring a better level of quality assurance.  

I would also be interested in seeing a roadmap for Zendesk Guide, as it was requested in other threads here, but never given to requestors. Does a roadmap for this part of your product even exist, if you are unable to provide the documentation to your customers? @katarzyna13

+1 for needing templates in Guide itself. 

We are working on "democratizing" our Help Center content and allowing folks from CS, tech support, implementations, professional services, etc to write content. However, they're not documentation writers by trade, so they need templates to help guide the creation of their content. Right now, we're trying to manage it by using a Google doc with the template that they can copy and use for their first draft and then paste all that into Guide. It would be so much easier if they could just select a template when they go to create a new article instead. 

@meagan12 we  have the same problem with the way zendesk is currently laid out. We use a tool https://gathercontent.com/blog/the-importance-of-content-workflows to create a template that is applied automatically for teams to use and make sure that they follow proper guidelines etc. 

Happy New Year, everyone. 
It is coming up 5 years on this thread - I'm adding my +1 on this feature and look forward to getting notified about the solution in 2034.

Hello everyone, thank you for your continued engagement on this thread and expressing your interest in this feature request. We understand that this feature is a priority for many of our customers however;  our last update remains as the official response to this post: and this feature request is valid however we will not be prioritizing this request at this time. 

We remain excited about delivering Guide users exciting features this year and are focusing our energy in the following areas: 

• Guide editor UI uplift
• Article Multiplacement
• Collaborative authoring 
• Advanced HTML components 
• GenAI tools for authoring

Thank you again for your feedback and for being valuable customers of Zendesk, we sincerely appreciate your business. Please view Shawna's comments at the end of this thread (last page) for more information as well. 

Hello everyone, I want to reiterate Katarzyna’s response and thank you for your engagement and expressing interest in the feature area. Not having the features you wish you see at Zendesk prioritized is an understandably frustrating experience. 

I understand how our recent updates about this feature not being prioritized might have caused frustration because we didn't reference our guidelines in this post. Product feedback that is provided in this space is not guaranteed to be included on any product backlog or roadmaps. While we listen and read every piece of feedback that comes through this forum, in some instances, our product teams need to make the tough decision to work in a direction that is not aligned with a particular piece of feedback. This Community forum is simply for sharing your challenges and how you use the product, but it is not a case/resolution system.

Also, per our guidelines and code of conduct, I want to remind folks that we expect all community members to adhere to respectful discourse in this space. Feedback and constructive criticism are welcome. Disparaging, harassing, mean, or snarky remarks about Zendesk, its employees, vendors, partners, or other community members will not be tolerated.

The most recent update from our product team remains our official response to this feature request: we understand the validity of this request however we are not prioritizing this feature at this time. We understand that this decision may be disappointing to those who are interested in this feature.

At this time we are going to close this post for comment since we have the information and interest needed should we ever prioritize this in the future. 

If you are interested in learning more about the future of Zendesk products, please visit the  What’s New page which is updated on a monthly basis.

We value your feedback and business, and we look forward to our continued partnership.